A Way With Words
by Just My Cup Of Tea
Summary: The world is crazy, Hanji is crazier, and Levi has all the romance of a twig.


For the prompt: "levihan please! where levi tries his best to confess his feelings for hanji but ends up blabblering some nonsense, so when he sees that he's getting nowhere he's just "the hell with it" and just kisses her to make his point clear :3"

* * *

So far, their. . . well, Levi hesitates to call it a relationship but that's essentially what is. . . whatever you want to call it, it hasn't needed words.

There was one nearly awkward moment, the first morning after, when it was clear they hadn't just used the bed for comfort and closeness like normal.

Nope. They _used_ the bed last night.

Evidence: Hanji's chest and neck, marked with bruises, and the slight pain from what are probably mirroring marks on his own body, and not to mention that Hanji's hair is a bigger disaster than normal, which, damn, forget anything he's ever done for the Scouting Legion, that's what he wants a medal for.

Hanji sees it too, well, how could she not, and Levi doesn't quite remember how it progressed from friendly, un-judged comfort to good, hot fucking, but ah well. Too late now, he supposes.

Their eyes meet and Levi sees a little bit of panic, a little bit of flight or fight response in Hanji's eyes, as they both process the morning and night before.

And then they get out of bed and that's that. There's reports to write and titans to study, so they get ready for the day calmly and without mentioning the night before.

Hanji tries to use Levi's toothbrush, but he takes it from her and instead hands her a new one from under his sink. Levi can't find his comb, but Hanji uses her fingers and it's comfortable and that should probably worry the both of them, but Levi kisses Hanji before she walks out of his rooms and she smiles and says "we should do that again" and everything is okay.

That was two years ago.

It's still good, it's still comfortable, and Hanji has her own toothbrush in his bathroom and he has one in hers, and he knows now that he couldn't find his comb that day because Hanji took it because it was the right size for an experiment, and above all else, everything is okay.

Except.

Except it isn't.

It isn't okay because they're out in the middle of the woods with a bunch of teenagers, and between the titan shifters, Erwin's plans, and Hanji's research, it's obvious humanity is racing toward a cliff and it's just a question of whether they're going to fall or fly.

And Levi is all too aware of the consequences of either.

He's not scared, per se, because he'll either live or he won't and he didn't see the point in worrying about it. But the world was about to be a sea and Levi would like something concrete to stand on.

Which is a desire he'll admit he's never had before.

He wants some confirmation that when this is all over, when humanity is either on its way out the walls or just on its way out, he wants to know that they'll face whatever fucked up thing the world brings next together. But doing so requires words.

Levi has always been hit and miss with words.

Sometimes whatever he comes up with is apparently inspiring and motivating and in some cases, comforting, but that's about a 50/50 mix with rude, sarcastic, and downright unpleasant. And Levi has a feeling that downright unpleasant is not going to get him the reaction he's looking for.

But the longer Levi goes without doing or saying something, the more anxious he gets. As far as he knows, no one even knows there's something between them. So he makes up his mind to tell her.

And of course, everything and everyone seems determined that he shouldn't.

He goes down to her makeshift lab, first thing in the morning, expecting her to have not gone to bed the night before. He's right, but instead of persuading her to come up to a bedroom and talk before a nap, she instead asks to use his hand as a plug (his are the only ones small enough).

Finally he gets her to go into the kitchen and get food, but she inhales it and is back in the lab before he can blink. He can't justify putting off the day's work any longer, so he rounds up the rest of the group and heads out for training.

By the time they get back the sun has set, and he's hoping he'll find Hanji in a good mood, maybe having figured something out and excited to share it. No, no, instead she's crabby and irritated with her work, and leaves snarling for a nap as soon as they get back.

He sighs internally and starts working on dinner with the rest of the squad, a rant going nonstop in his head.

It takes a while to make dinner for everyone in one small kitchen, but finally they set out the food on the counter and everyone begins piling food on their plates, mood lifting as the promise of food hangs in the air.

Levi is standing near one of the cabinets, waiting and watching, when he feels a presence approach him by the shoulder.

"Dinner time, right?" Hanji says, yawning. "It can't possibly be breakfast yet." Levi snorts.

"No, you didn't sleep that long, Shitty Glasses." He turns to face her, and has a sudden epiphany while looking at her disaster hair and strange glasses and blank, clearly just woken up expression.

They don't need words. They never have.

So instead Levi grabs her collar and pulls her down into a kiss. He feels her freeze and feels himself begin to the do the same, because this was not normal at all, but then she relaxes and everything is fine despite the sudden silence from everyone around them and the sudden screaming at himself Levi is doing in his mind.

He keeps his face as expressionless as he can when they pull apart, hoping she can't tell that he's screaming at himself. But this is Hanji, and she smirks at him to let him know that she sees right through him.

"My, my, Levi, is this your way of telling me you want to make it official?" she leers at him. He makes a "tch" sound in the back of his throat.

"It's been two years; I think that's official enough, don't you?" He turned away from her to look at the squad, who had all paused in the what they were doing and stared. "Are you people going to eat or not?"

They all unfroze after that, quickly turning away and shoveling food onto their plates once more.

As Levi moved to take his turn, he felt Hanji lean closer to whisper in his ear.

"Just so you know, official sounds pretty good to me too."


End file.
